“Based on the most conservative estimates, tens of thousands of legally-armed private citizens have used firearms defensively, including one 15-year-old teenager in Texas who protected his home and sister with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “But the press virtually ignored these incidents, instead concentrating on getting a juicy sound bite from anti-gun Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy about how many people have been victims of violent crime.

“This ignores the positive side of private gun ownership,” he added, “and presents a biased view of guns in society. We need to recognize the number of lives that have been saved, and the number of crimes thwarted because a citizen had a gun.”

“We all deplore the senseless loss of life,” Gottlieb observed. “But Rep. McCarthy and other gun grabbers like to ignore the usefulness of firearms in the right hands. Anti-gunners assume that if you only tell half a story, it becomes the story.”

Gottlieb suggested that if reporters need balance, they can find stories every day about lawful self-defense on the KeepAndBearArms.com website.

“It’s about time the press looked at those stories and gave them national attention equal to the attention they pay to the criminal misuse of firearms,” Gottlieb said. “Private firearms ownership should be reported and encouraged. After all, if it saves just one life, then having a gun for personal protection is an idea we should all support.”

With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is one of the nation’s premier gun rights organizations. As a non-profit organization, the Citizens Committee is dedicated to preserving firearms freedoms through active lobbying of elected officials and facilitating grass-roots organization of gun rights activists in local communities throughout the United States. The Citizens Committee can be reached by phone at (425) 454-4911, on the Internet at www.ccrkba.org or by email to InformationRequest@ccrkba.org.